Georgia falls in OT to Mississippi

Georgia (12-13, 6-6) was just a Donte Williams alley-oop dunk away from stunning Ole Miss on their home floor in Oxford on Saturday night.

With a hair over a half of a second remaining in regulation, Coach Mark Fox drew up a beautiful inbounds play that featured Williams screening high for Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. As Fox and Georgia expected, the Rebels overloaded help to a curling KCP, leaving Donte alone to glide to the rim. Neme tossed him a perfect pass and had Wiliams not been mauled by the Ole Miss defender he would have surely finished it with a game-winning flush.

Unfortunately, no foul was called.

Instead, the two teams went to overtime locked up at 70 apiece. The Rebels – up 78-74 with 1:06 left in the overtime – put the stamp on this victory on a side out play that left Murphy Holloway with the ball and no one on him as the shot clock was about to expire. Instinctively, Holloway drove to the basket and took the free lay-up, putting his team up 80-74. After a few more free throws, Ole Miss would lead 84-74 when the clock ran out.

Credit Georgia for giving a Herculean effort in a very hostile environment against one of the SEC’s better teams. The Dawgs hung tight with the Rebels in a game that featured 17 lead changes and five minutes of free basketball.

With just 3:54 remaining in regulation, the Dawgs appeared in control following a three-pointer from KCP, extending the UGA advantage to 64-56.

Marshall Henderson, who had played sparingly much of the night due to foul trouble, responded at a point when his team desperately needed him. Henderson scored the next 14 Rebel points and played a major role in getting his squad into the overtime. Henderson finished the game with 25 points, going a perfect 14 of 14 from the charity stripe.

For Georgia, Pope led the way with 19 points to go along with 12 rebounds, marking his fourth double-double of the year.

Everyone contributed for Coach Fox in this game, and his team dominated a physical Ole Miss team 39-22 on the boards. Kenny Gaines and Donte Williams both reached double-digits, scoring 13 and 10 points, respectively.

Gaines, who fouled out late in this game, notched his points in just 18 minutes of play. One thing is for certain, Kenny Gaines is ready to be playing significant minutes for this Georgia team for the remainder of the season. He is looking more confident and smooth with the basketball, and I anticipate that he will continue to provide offensive support down the stretch.

The Dawgs get a bit of a breather before they hit the road again next Thursday to take on Arkansas in Fayetteville.

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7 thoughts on “Georgia falls in OT to Mississippi”

The officiating last night was atrociously one-sided, and it is no mystery to me why Henderson leads the SEC in scoring. He is good, of course, but he shoots too many foul shots that other players never get. The call on Kenny Gaines that took him out of the game was terrible. I was about to say that the refs didn’t cost us the game though, unless you totally dismiss the hammering that Donte took at the rim in the last second of regulation. Unbelievable that a group that appeared to be shameless homers did not make that call. Fox can be fined for complaining, but I can’t–so i will. Interestingly, I had thought that officiating in the SEC had gotton much better in the past few years–until this year. On a more positive note, the Dawgs looked like a real basketball TEAM last night, the caveat being that they looked too much to KCP in crunch time. Vince had a couple of wide open 3s that he did not take (may have been Fox’s instructions not to shoot), but we were better on offense when almost everyone was looking to score throughout the first 37 minutes. Again, I really love to see KCP and Gaines on the floor together. Let’s just play KCP at the 3 position and give Gaines a lot more playing time!

Kudos to Coach Fox for having these guys playing hard on the road. No point in belaboring the poor officiating. We still could have won. I felt sorry for Gaines. His best game and the fouls called on him were deadly. But love to see him run the floor with KCP and Mann. He is/could be the second scoring threat that will make KCP more effective. The team has a different chemistry with Gaines in the game. They can play with anybody in the SEC at this point. Still a problem with the poor ball handling and fouls by the big men. Mann sometimes appears to lose his focus-can’t have the ball stolen at crunch time-that really hurt. But, great effort and I give Fox credit.

Yes, the officiating was horribly one-sided last night. Dawgs were the better team through regulation, and a couple pivotal calls really did cost them the game. Overall, though, it was great seeing the team play this way. This young team seems to be coming together.

Also, it’s been a long time since I’ve found a college hoops players as annoying as Marshall Henderson. Did anybody else feel that way?